


under my skin

by jessamoo



Category: Reign (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 11:03:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2770661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessamoo/pseuds/jessamoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for the prompt "After Claude and Louis' feelings for one another grow deeper she finds out about his crush on Mary and gets jealous"</p>
            </blockquote>





	under my skin

She's watching him across the room, waiting.

Her, actually waiting. She can't remember the last time she waited around for anyone.

Louis had said he would go get them more drinks and had disappeared with a breathless smile that she couldn't help return. 

Claude wasn't used to feeling this way. Oh, she was used to wanting, of course. Wanting someone, wanting attention, drama. That had been there, inside of her, her whole life. That chaos, that meanness, growling in her stomach like a lion. But she wasn't used to actually liking someone. Maybe...loving someone? She wasn't used to letting someone that close, letting someone see her for who she really was. And she was scared and nervous.

So seeing him talking to Mary whilst he was supposed to come back to her wasn't making her feel any better. He catches her eye over she shoulders of the queen - the beautiful, young queen - and smirks. She does not smirk back. As much as she knows he probably can't just leave, she can see how he keeps getting drawn back to the conversation easily.

"I wouldn't worry." An annoyingly chipper voice says behind her. "That's all over now, I think."

Claude scowls at Kenna as she comes to stand beside her and they stare at Louis and Mary. Kenna has that apathetic look on her face - she's acting like it's nothing on purpose. She folds her arms nonchalantly and smiles sweetly at Claude.

"What's all over?" Claude demands. "What are you talking about?"

Kenna raises her eyebrows. "Well...Conde and Mary of course..." She trails off awkwardly. "Look, nothing happened...besides, it's practically an unwritten law that every man at court falls in love with Mary at some point...even mine." She adds, almost sadly, glancing at Bash, as if remembering everything they had sworn to move on from.

Claude's mouth gapes open, her eyes wide and panicked. For the moment, she looks so childish and small that Kenna can't help but soften. 

"If it's over then why is he ignoring me for her?" She cried hysterically.

Kenna fights the urge to roll her eyes and instead puts her hand on Claude's shoulder. To both of their surprise, Claude lets her. "She's the queen. He's just being respectful. For some reason Conde seems to actually like you, and he wouldn't break the vow of his engagement. He isn't like that and you know it."

Claude slumps her shoulders, her bottom lip quivering. She peers up at Kenna, her wide eyes brimful of tears. "Why are you nice to me?" She frowns suddenly. "Even when I'm horrid to you. Just because I'm a princess?"

Kenna shakes her head disparagingly. "Because, your are my husbands sister. So that makes you mine too. And anyway, court is so dangerous as it is...us girls have to stick together."

Claude smiles at her. It's the nicest thing anyone has said to her for a long time. Even when Francis tried to be nice, it always felt empty, hollow. Like he was patorinizing her or expecting the worst of her. She supposed that was why she was they way she was. They always watched her in case she did something wrong, and that was the only time they ever paid attention to her. She had thought Kenna was just like them - trying to earn her favour just because. But she wasn't and Claude was glad of it. Since she had softened toward Louis, since she had seen that someone really could like her for being herself, she was more willing to accept that from other people, as strange as it was for her.

But now Louis and Mary were together, laughing and looking like a perfect royal couple. She couldn't hope to compete with the kind of easy perfection Mary inhabited and everyone knew it. She saw how everyone looked at her. Not like she was a queen, like she was a goddess on earth. No one ever looked at Claude like that.

Suddenly she darts away from Kenna, who's hand hovers uselessly in the air for a moment as she jumps, watching her go and not being able to stop her.

Claude sees a serving boy carrying a tray laden with drinks and makes a beeline for him as she stamps toward the exit. He tries to dodge her, her face like fury, like an army advancing, but he can't move quick enough with that tray. 

She barrels right into him, shoving her shoulder into him.

The sound is humongous as a flood of glass and wine spills across the pristine floor, staining it violently. She looks up at Louis for a moment, his mouth wide open and a frown on his face. Then she stalks out of the throne room, not looking back for an instant.

 

"Claude!" 

She hears Louis calling after her as she stamps down the corridor, his footsteps quick. He will catch up to her, she knows. So she stops abruptly and spins to face him, her hands on her hips.

He skids to a halt in front of her and sighs, opening his arms in question. "What was that?"

Claude rolled her eyes dramatically. "If you don't know then I can't tell you." She shrugs and turns to leave again.

Before she can take another step however Louis' arm whips out, grabbing her wrist and turning her back to him.

He looks down at her, concern flooding his face. The way he looked at her...like she wasn't empty. Like he saw fire dancing inside of her. She had wanted to believe him, his eyes, but now she was unsure.

His hand softens on her wrist and strokes up her arm.

"I am not a mind reader. And I don't know, so tell me." He demands firmly, but not unkindly.

She lifts her chin haughtily, not meeting his eye. "Do you still like her?" She asks, her voice loud and harsh.

Louis blanches for a second and she sees him shake his head in confusion. "Who..." Then he pauses, realising. "Do you mean Mary?"

"So you did?" She retorts quickly.

"Yes. Did, not do. I don't still...harbour feelings for her. I thought perhaps I did when I first came her. I thought..." He sighed. "Why does this matter?"

"It matters to me!" She stamps her foot angrily and he concedes.

"All right. I thought her...unlike anyone I had known. I thought no one could possess that wit, that beauty, that charm. That strength."

Claude rolls her eyes again, not wanting to hear him praise another woman. She looks away from him and purses her lips until she feels his fingers under her chin, softly turning her face to his again.

"Until you." He finishes with a wide smile, nudging her a little.

"I am not like her." She says quietly.

Louis shrugs. "You are all those things and more. And that is why I want to marry you. I want to find everything that makes you different, makes you special. I want to spend a lifetime discovering all the secrets of you." He whispers.

"Really?" Her voice comes out shaky and quiet, despite her not wanting it to.

He nods, still holding her chin, drawing it closer to him. "Really."

The he kisses her. It isn't like all the kisses she had had before. It isn't rough or insisted, it isn't stolen or devious or just plain wrong. It's...sweet. It's soft and calm and she can feel peace on his lips.

And she discovers she likes it.


End file.
